As a poverty-stricken photographer’s assistant in Tennessee, young Edward Barnard made his own telescope and discovered several comets. These discoveries led to his gaining an education at Vanderbilt University and joining the initial staff of the Lick Observatory, where, with his exceptionally keen vision and the new 36-inch Lick refractor, he discovered Amalthea, the fifth known moon of Jupiter. In 1895 he moved to the not-yet-completed Yerkes Observatory. He made many studies, both visual and photographic, of the physical features of planets, comets, nebulae, and novae. Barnard’s careful drawings of Mars were used by the astronomical community as evidence for the nonexistence of canals on Mars. His greatest achievement was the introduction of wide-field photographic methods to study the structure of the Milky Way. He discovered dark clouds and globules and the star with the largest known proper motion.